Annoyed, Overwhelmed, and Exhausted

amother

DarkKhaki

Fri, Apr 14 2023, 12:50 am

I don't know if your looking for tips but if you are....this is what we do to make pesach less stressful

- I don't start with any cleaning till about 3 weeks before. It's just to stressful to start to make everyone crazy about being careful and etc....

- about 1.5-2 weeks is set aside for cleaning then about 1 week before we start turning over and cooking. We don't have any chometz accessible in the house once that starts. We tried it and it's waaay to stressful that way with little kids. I don't like having to keep telling the kids to be careful and making sure no one comes into the kitchen with chometz. I get nervous and I start getting annoyed with the kids. This works out much better. We do have some inaccessible stuff that I give them when we go out. Sometimes I buy (or I make) the one person pouches of cereal and we eat that outside or in the park for breakfast, or I take a loaf of bread that we kept in the freezer (out of their reach) and a package of turkey and eat that for supper in the park.... and sometimes we have kosher lepesach suppers..... you get the idea. Main things is I'm not stressing what/where the kids are eating while I'm cooking food for pesach since they don't have any chometz

- I don't do major cleaning/spring cleaning. I open each draw look if there's any chometz , and close it (I don't start wiping it down and etc.... No reason for that) So each bedroom literally takes maybe half hour. Same with all the other rooms. The couch takes a bit more time and I do wipe down the dinning room chairs and do a good vacuum and mopping. My toys are in clear big containers. If I know the kids will use it pesach I'll dig through it a drop, and pick up the container and look at the bottom (since it's clear) but that's it. I don't go through games and etc.... No reason anything should be in them....

- we have 3 hrs of cleaning help weekly. 4 weeks before pesach each week I have her do one thing I'm dreading to clean in the kitchen (like the freezer, or oven and etc....) (I can't have her do more then that bec I need her for the regular stuff) Even though we still use the stuff she cleaned with chomez after, it's much easier to clean since it was done recently.

- we have two boxes of pesach stuff and that it (we use nice paper goods so need need to store dishes and etc) No need for more. So taking the stuff out is easy and we don't need to make so much room for stuff.

- we buy paper goods a while before pesach (1-2 months at least much before we start with any pesach cleaning) and store in a box (and add to it when we buy big packages of stuff and want some for now and some for pesach ) then when I pesach shopping I just need to focus on buying food

- I have a neat list of recipes (on a Whatsapp group titled pesach) for pesach that I know everyone (or at least a lot ) of the family likes and mostly stick to those. So I don't wast time cooking stuff that people don't like or dont come out good.

- this might sound funny and not so simpld, but I make sure sure everyday before pesach the kids have a filling lunch. I found they are so much better behaved when they do, and don't come asking for food/telling me their hungry every other minute (which can lead to me feeling impatient). It's easier to get away with a lighter supper of yougurt/leben/eggs and etc....

- I somtimes find it's better to stay up late and cook/shop then do it with the kids. If I do then the next day I put out toys/video for the kids and try to doze/get a nap near them when the baby naps.

Even with all this, it definitely does get stressful and etc at times, but the above definitely helps....

And like another person wrote personal circumstances help - like if someone gets time off before pesach/their husband helps a lot/their kids aren't as hard or they don't have as many/ they go away for some meals/ they have a more organized personality or enjoy cooking and etc...

amother

Dahlia

Fri, Apr 14 2023, 5:52 am

If you're an adhd type person like me, dh, and 75% of our kids, it's just going to be harder than if you weren't.

I've decluttered a lot over the past few years. It definitely helps.

I sell a lot of cabinets and live out of boxes for the week of Pesach.

I cook simple.

I buy little treats for myself.

My kids are older now and they can actually help, which is amazing. They're also not trailing crumbs and debris everywhere they go, like your kids probably are. But, the planning and logistics is still all on me, which is something I'm not great at, and makes me feel anxious. But the more Pesachs you make, the more realistic you get about how much energy you actually have, how much time you actually have, and what your limits need to be so you can fulfill the mitzvah of being happy on YT. I also got better about delegating jobs and being very clear about what I need.

It's hard but can get a lot better if you think about how you can work smarter next year.